Once off Interstate 474 and turning onto route 29 there is a lighted sign that reads Spook Hollow. The sign can actually be seen from the interstate.

There is plenty of parking at the school and along the street. All parking is located within walking distance.

Once you walk into Independence Park you will see a large sign that says Spook Hollow.

Wait
Entertainment:

The line you enter actually starts at a baseball diamond and travels along the field until you walk through a path into the woods. I believe this part of the woods was part of the original trail. Spook Hollow has been in business for about 35 years.

Once you come out of the woods you walk up to M.C. Manor and purchase your tickets for the haunt.

A concession stand with corn dogs, funnel cakes, and beverages is available as you are waiting.

Once inside the covered shelter, there is a small store that you can purchase candy like Blueberry Ant lollipops, other real bug snacks, and Spook Hollow memorabilia.

There were a couple of dead roaming the crowd inside the covered area scaring up some fun and 2 large movie screens that give you a little history and rules of the house.

You are escorted into the house in large groups where a gentleman locks you in a room. The man stands on a podium and explains the rules and gives your first scares of the evening. Then back outside the haunt to another queue line to go into M.C. Manor.

Admission
Price:

Price is $20.00 and includes all three haunts.

Speed Pass is an additional $10.00 which allows you to skip all the lines within the haunt. There are speed pass lines at the beginning of the haunt and through the trail.

Parking:

Free

Length:

M.C. Manor: 7 minutesM.C. Nightmare: 7.5 minutesSpook Hollow: 24 minutes
*=
Since people move through haunted attractions at different
rates, your time will vary. Note:
The time shown here represents the actual time spent moving
forward through the attraction. Time spent waiting in queue
lines, staging areas, intro scenes, rules rooms and when traffic
jams cause patrons to come to a halt, has been subtracted.

LPR:

6.352
LPR stands for Length/Price Ratio. It represents perceived value of an event, by
comparing
length vs price of admission. Higher numbers represent more value per dollar. Actual
quality and/or entertainment value of an event are not factors in this calculation.
Click Here
to see how this event compares to others
visited this year by the staff of HauntedIllinois.com.

Scare
Factor:

M.C. Manor:
MediumM.C. Nightmare: HighSpook Hollow: Medium-High

Crowd
Control:

Since there are three haunts located in the overall haunt, I will separate into three different locales to explain the crowd control.

In M.C. Manor, we were led into the house and within 20 seconds we were with the group in front of us. Shortly after that there were two groups that caught up to my group. At one point in the house where we had to walk around a pneumatic bed, there was a moving conga line of 20 people moving through. Finally after about 4 rooms there were a couple of actors that started asking people to wait a second for the rooms to be reset; but there were other actors pushing the patrons through. Exiting M.C. Manor we were still a group of 12.

In M.C. Nightmare, crowd control was effectively done; we did not hear or see any other groups in the haunt.

In Spook Hollow, walking through the woods there are a couple of check points that you go through to break up the groups that you met along the way and Spook Hollow trail does a really good job at this. Patrons do walk the trail at different speeds so it is likely that you will encounter others.

Summary:

Spook Hollow is 3 haunts connected to form 1 large haunt. You start off with M.C. Manor, Spook Hollow Trail part 1, M.C. Nightmare, and then back into Spook Hollow Trail part 2.

Once inside M.C. Manor you walk through a collection of scenes that are mostly theme of being in an old haunted house. There is one point that where you walk into a room and a pneumatic demon flies over your head and you believe you are going to have to walk up a staircase. Once turning the corner you actually walk through the staircase into the next room. At this point is where we encountered the group in front of us. We tried to wait a bit to let them go ahead but then a group behind us caught up. At this point we were missing a lot of the scares. At least I know the scares were effective because in places I could see the group ahead of us reacting to the scares.

One stand out scene was a kitchen/dining area with one very large obese prop sitting at a table eating. While you are fixated on him a scare totally comes from behind really catching you off guard.

One pneumatic that I really loved was a zombie beating on a gate above you screaming. As you got closer the gate and the zombie began to fall on you.

Once you come out of M.C. Manor you come to another wait line for Spook Hollow Part 1.

The gates as you enter Spook Hollow look like 2 cement pillars and iron gates. Across the top the cemetery looking entrance says Spook Hollow. Spook Hollow has their trail down to an art. Strategically placed lights upon the path make it hard for patrons to see as you walk through. It hides the scares and the pneumatics through the woods from the patrons so they don’t know what is coming next. An area that I really enjoyed was a couple of little girls asking us to “come play” with them. They skipped around a tall dark totem and chanted “you are going to die”. The scare here was very impressive, no way you could have prepared for what was about to come.

In Spook Hollow actors are hiding all through the trail and believe me it is packed with actors. The ones that seem to get the most scares are the ones that come running or crawling out of the bushes. One standout guy that really got my group was lying on the ground saying “I am a bush”. The scare then came out of the brush and the bush said, “He is not”. A nice mix of screaming and laughter came from my group.

Walking through Spook Hollow it is a collection of a path through the woods and small shacks set up. Each shack contains a themed scene or a dark maze for patrons to walk through. A stand out scene, you walked into a house that was completely filled with thick fog. Once you moved through you actually realize you were walking into a burning house. The lighting and fog really made it uncomfortable as you walked by “burning” actors scaring patrons or asking for help.

In another area, Granny was waiting at the door for you inviting you into her home. The house was filled with the dead. As you walked through the rooms of broken down dirty furniture it really added to the eerie feeling in this part of the haunt. Zombies came from every direction just walking really close to you, sniffing you, wanting a taste. There was even a supper scene of the dead gathered around the dinner table munching on body parts with a severed head as the centerpiece.

As I walked up to M.C. Nightmare, I was in awe. The building outside, looked like you were walking into an abandoned warehouse. Once inside you were met with a very industrial looking haunt. Our eyes first glanced upon a machinist that was working on an engine of some sorts. He just turned to the group and stared as you made your way through the room into a dimly lit hallway. In the ceiling of the hallway there were rusty spikes coming down as the hall grew darker and darker. All the props and decorations in this haunt were either wood or ominous rusty metal props on the walls and ceiling. At one point we were walking down a dark hallway and a strobe light came on with two actors bouncing at us out of the wall. Two of the undead complete with white dead eyes, flailed and grabbed at us. In this part of the haunt there was not much room to stand back from the actors and loved that you had to squeeze by them. Outstanding job on their new attraction M.C. Nightmare!

Overall Spook Hollow does an excellent job of giving the patrons want they want, to be scared and frightened. If you like going to haunts that are very detailed in décor mixed with frightening scares, Spook Hollow excels at this. As I mentioned with about 35 years of experience is a lot of time to prefect their scares and scenes and they have done just that.

The actors stayed in character through the entire haunt even when they resetting their scenes. Actors had a great mix of masks and make-up and a majority of them were in costume. However I did see one actor that was using a drop down window that was wearing a University of Illinois sweatshirt in the middle of Spook Hollow.

My only criticism would be the crowd control in M.C. Manor. I know there would have been great actor scares and pneumatic scares to see in the areas where we had the moving conga line but we missed out on them.

I commend the Marquette Men’s Club for what they have done over the years. Money raised does go back into local projects to help a local Christmas toy drive, local Fire and Police departments, and Independence Park. This haunt has been one of our favorites because of the value and the scares; you really do see the improvements in the park area and the haunt.

Don’t miss a visit this season to Spook Hollow; I can’t wait to see the changes they will make for next year!